Becoming the Dark Lord

Luke was teleported somewhere else.

[You have entered the Phase 1 Beacon Dungeon!]

Objective: Survive until the end and complete 3 challenges. Failure to complete the challenges will result in your death with the destruction of the Beacon.

Theme: Reach the end of the maze.

He was in the ocean. Ahead of him stood a gigantic square structure, massive, monolithic, with a single entrance. When he looked down and dove a little, all he saw below was darkness.

“The space around me must be limited. That horizon is probably fake.”

Luke swam toward the entrance.

Before I came in, the dungeon mentioned something about a Sea Guardian.

He opened the event mission screen.

[Reach the Citadel on the Continent]: ???

[Conquer Your First Beacon]: ???

[Kill a Sea Guardian (Island Champion Exclusive)]: ???

[Confront a Ghost Pirate Ship (Island Champion Exclusive)]: ???

[Visit the Abyssal Zone (Island Champion Exclusive)]: Completed

[Event Guide]: Completed

Of the three missions I got for winning the Battle Royale, I’ve already finished one. And from the look of it, I’ll have to finish another inside this Beacon.

“Luke Moon, you are inside a dungeon,” Cadmus said. “A self-contained dimensional space where time and distance obey their own rules.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“The only way out is to solve it.”

“I’ve had enough experience already with dimensions, dungeons, and getting trapped in places.”

The moment Luke stepped inside, he looked down the corridor ahead.

“It really is a maze.” When he glanced up, all he saw was a dark ceiling. “I’m guessing there’s no easy way to cheese this by climbing to the top and crossing over it.”

“Even if there were, a giant wave would probably appear and stop you,” Cadmus said. “I would not recommend trying to break the rules of a challenge. The dungeon may not appreciate it, and... trust me, you do not want to be locked in here.”

Luke started through the corridors.

“We’ve done the maze thing before,” Artemis said. “Don’t disappoint me.”

The place had its own lighting, glowing circles set into the walls. Luke went with his usual approach: pick one wall and never lose it.

As he walked, he opened his system interface. At level 70 in [Witch], he had unlocked a new skill choice.

[Curse Objects (Rare)]: By using the power of [Curse], the Witch can imbue an object with a curse. Anyone careless enough to touch it will suffer the effects. Useful for protecting valuable items or setting traps for enemies.

[Blazing Curse (Rare)]: The Witch channels a volatile fragment of her curse into a thrown blade. When it strikes, the curse ignites on impact, setting the target ablaze and dealing damage over time. The flames can spread easily to nearby victims who come into contact with them.

[Curse Scream (Rare)]: The Witch learns that the voice can be a weapon, and hearing can be turned into an opening for attack. By screaming, the Witch pours the power of [Curse] into her voice, causing enemies who hear it to suffer the pain of the curse through sound itself, along with confusion.

[Sleep Curse (Uncommon)]: Can induce sleep in weaker, lower-level creatures. The Witch has learned from mistakes and missed opportunities, and now she can put certain enemies in her path to sleep.

[Tactile Telekinesis (Rare)]: The Witch’s telekinetic power helps her channel mana through direct contact, allowing her to affect with telekinesis anything that remains in contact with her body. She can make an object move, float, spin, or even bend slightly, as though her will extended beyond matter itself. The skill requires physical contact to function, but in return offers much firmer, more delicate control. Its strength, weight limit, and complexity of manipulation depend on the Witch’s mastery of [Enhanced Telekinesis].

Luke read through every skill option. Four of them were variations of Curse.

Simple, but extremely useful.

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Isn’t Tactile Telekinesis technically worse than regular Telekinesis? It’s way more efficient to move things with your mind without needing contact. If I have to touch something to move it, wouldn’t it just be easier to grab it with my hand?

The logic seemed sound. Still, Luke kept thinking it through.

If I have to touch the object first, then it probably costs a lot less mana. And maybe I can make my boots float and carry me with them.

There were too many possibilities.

[You acquired the Class Skill: Tactile Telekinesis]

Whether it turned out to be good or not did not really matter to Luke. He wanted to go deeper into the telekinesis skill tree.

***

After a while, Luke reached a new section. From that point on, the path was flooded, and the narrow corridor opened up.

Dungeon Challenge 1: Collect 25 red fish in the net from the labyrinth lake and offer them to the door leading to the next area.

Time Remaining: 59 min : 59 sec

“So this is the first challenge.”

Farther ahead stood a red door. But the side corridors were all submerged. The water was murky, full of floating leaves. He picked up a net lying in front of the door. The moment Luke stepped into the water, he realized how deep it was. He was beneath the labyrinth. It was basically a lake down there, hidden inside it, with corridors running through it.

“Wonderful,” he muttered underwater through the mask.

There were fish everywhere. Whole schools moving through the flooded passages.

“I’m guessing there’s no retry if I fail this, right, Cadmus?”

“No. Once you fail, it’s over.”

Luke swam forward quickly. The corridors were too narrow for him to summon the Spectral Beast. Using Sariel’s Eye, he scanned everything as he moved through the maze, even relying on its three-hundred-sixty-degree vision. Then, among a school of dark fish, he spotted a single red one.

“We found the Magikarp,” Artemis said.

Luke kicked forward fast. The school scattered. He caught the red fish with both hands as it thrashed and tried to slip free, then dropped it into the net tied to his body.

1/25 Red Fish Collected

“Here we go.”

He swam deeper into the maze. The place was well lit. Luke kept only his right eye open so he could focus Sariel’s Eye at full power.

2/25 Red Fish Collected

3/25 Red Fish Collected

As he kept catching them, he realized something. The schools were hiding the red fish on purpose.

“Oh, so every single one of you is helping now. Thanks for the tip.”

He considered using a skill to just blow the fish apart. It might have been faster. But the challenge said collect, not kill, and he had the feeling that would count as a failure.

4/25 Red Fish Collected

Another red fish darted away and vanished around a corner with startling speed.

“A current in the water. Clever.”

It was a narrow current, just wide enough for the fish. Luke kept swimming and collecting.

7/25 Red Fish Collected

8/25 Red Fish Collected

After several more minutes, only one remained.

24/25 Red Fish Collected

“Where is the little bastard?”

He swam through the corridors while the schools reacted more aggressively. As he passed, they started blocking his sight, getting in his way, even tugging at the net as if trying to free the fish he had already caught.

Luke raised a hand and activated [Curse], forcing his way through. Any fish that brushed against his hand was injured and scattered away from him.

24/25 Red Fish Collected

Time Remaining: 13 min : 17 sec

Then Luke saw the final red fish. He lunged and threw a knife.

[Witch’s Thread activated]

The thread yanked him forward at high speed. He caught the fish and shoved it into the net.

25/25 Red Fish Collected

Now all that was left was getting back.

“Too bad Teleport Pentagram only takes me, and not the fish.”

If it had worked on them too, he could have left one near the door earlier, dropped another one down here now, stepped on the circle, and been done with it. Instead, he swam back the way he had come, using [Assassin’s Tracking] to retrace his route. When he reached the door, he threw the fish down.

[Challenge completed!]

The door opened into another section of the maze.

“And the damn fish?”

No answer. The moment he passed through, the door shut behind him on its own. Luke kept moving through the labyrinth, kukris in hand as he advanced down the corridors. When he reached the next doorway, it was already open. He stepped out onto solid ground, and in front of him lay a vast dark lake. Using a zoomed view through his eye, he spotted another closed door on the far shore.

[Dungeon Challenge 2: Find the key to the next area at the bottom of the lake.]

[Time Remaining: 19 min : 59 sec]

“That’s it?”

Then he did exactly what needed doing. He jumped into the lake and started diving. The lake was deep. Ridiculously deep. Deep enough that it made him think this was not really a lake at all, just a piece of the ocean sealed off and trapped here.

As he descended, something lit up in the darkness. Bioluminescent plants. They glowed beside a chest.

“Yeah, I seriously doubt I got that lucky.”

He opened the chest.

[Unfortunately, this chest does not contain the key.]